Working MP3 option?

[JohnBuell]

At the risk of beating a dead horse....

 

I've been looking through threads of audio add-ons that exist for the 1088 projects, and knowing Fujinet can see and process certain kinds of Internet data... Has anyone come up with a hardware module that would plug into SIO, PBI or ECI, or onto an existing A8 based circuit board that could grab

A) FAT formatted SD Card or CF Card loaded with MP3 files

B) Online MP3 stream of any existing Playlist (such as from another computer in the house streaming via VLC)

C) Directory of MP3s from a computer using any SIO-USB solution?

 

I know it's been talked about for at least seven years or so, not least because the Apple and Commodore groups *have* working solutions. I don't care *how* it's implemented, I just want to stream an SD Card loaded with Christmas music from my Raspberry Pi on the top floor to the A8s in my basement. I guess I just don't understand why it's been so hard for A8s to gain this capability, when we've known since 1979 we can at least get mono audio off of a cassette player.

 

And maybe that's what I have to do. Stream from VLC acting as a server in one room to a laptop, phone, or tablet in the basement with an old school audio cassette adapter and a pair of POKE commands. Thoughts?

Edited November 27, 2021 by JohnBuell

[Wrathchild]

My thoughts, why... just use your phone, iPod, BT headphones/speakers and get a better quality output?

[JohnBuell]

That question is one of the ones that pops up every time. And that's probably why nobody had bothered. But that actually frustrates me. The other 8 bit communities have working solutions. Why don't we?

[Wrathchild]

They're a novelty, as programmers a lot of us will do something 'just because' it can be done.

Granted people will go wow and say that's great etc and then use it a few times and then move on.

The thing is on PCs etc, they are running apps concurrently and so you can get on and do other things whilst listening.

Such an app would tie up the A8 machine, so going to your basement to listen to poor quality audio seems strange.

 

Now if you have 2 A8's down there then that another thing  

[JohnBuell]

If I really worried about sound reproduction fidelity, I wouldn't be targeting MP3 files in the first place.

[Wrathchild]

 in terms of digital reproduction at today's encoded bitrates that's not a factor

[JohnBuell]

Which would also mean spending a couple of hours re-ripping the CDs. Pass.

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

The Atari doesn't have to reproduce the sound, all it has to do is tell the device what it has to do.  You don't have to "ty up" an A8 for that.  Just start a piece of software that can read the table of contents, select whatever you want to hear and tell the hardware to play that.  That's how my CD Player software works.  Yep, I can play audio CDs from my 8 bit Atari.  Have done that for the first time in I guess 2002 or maybe even 2001.  Check out my ATASPI Page.  Hint: You'll need a Blackbox and a SCSI CD ROM player.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

[Wrathchild]

Have that ported to FujiNet

[JohnBuell]

Mathy, did anyone ever port your code to using MIO rather than Black Box? The latter is pretty hard to find now.

 

Or, if I knew anything about Python, writing a module that would allow for the choice of a local VLC player instead of the Spotify code might be interesting. Basically turning an A8 into a giant VLC remote with local playback through the SIO audio pin. And giving you a choice of players to feed through the Sio2pc/USB connection. 

[snicklin]

I understand why some people might be against getting the Atari to play MP3's, but at the same time, there could be a use for it.

 

I think that it wouldn't be bad if we had a large game on a large cartridge or some SD solution and on the title screen, it could play some nice music in the background.

 

As for "people are only doing to show that the Atari can do it", then you could say the same about the videos of Top Gear playing off a banked cartridge.

 

But you have to look at science itself. Often people wonder why scientists are spending a fortune to find out why Corn Flakes go soggy at an atomic level when milk is added, but discoveries like that lead to other things of more use. 

 

Perhaps some MP3 snippets could be used for sound effects and cartridge banked video could be used on small TV screens within a game as part of the plot?

[Atari8guy]

I'm imagining a Fujinet podcatcher.  Which I would totally use on an almost daily basis as my a8 is right next to my work-from-home PC.

[Mathy]

Hello John

 

8 hours ago, JohnBuell said:

Mathy, did anyone ever port your code to using MIO rather than Black Box? The latter is pretty hard to find now.

 

No, unfortunately nobody did.  But they would only have to port the ASPI driver, that's the Blackbox specific part, which was written by Matthias Belitz by the way.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Mathy

[JohnBuell]

5 hours ago, Mathy said:

Hello John

 

 

No, unfortunately nobody did.  But they would only have to port the ASPI driver, that's the Blackbox specific part, which was written by Matthias Belitz by the way.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

Thanks for the response!